This past week I attended the Rose Café given by Mrs. Laura Rodriguez de Simons and came away both impressed and inspired by the story of her work in advocacy. Listening to the first part of her talk, in which she went over some of her personal history in the field, it really struck me how demanding the work that she does is. Not only does she interact with many people who have had physically and emotionally traumatizing events happen to them, but also she must always maintain a level of professional detachment from those people. Balancing helping out clients and preserving a separate personal life sounds to me like an incredibly difficult task, and I believe I have newfound appreciation for all people in that line of work. Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons also told us of how she had worked in several countries including some in Africa and South America, which I found to be also impressive because of how she must have had to adapt her methods of advocacy to all those different cultures.

Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons concluded the talk with some advice about finding the right career path based on her experience and what she wished she would have known. Although it is often said to “follow you passion,” it is not always that you find a person who really did just that and Mrs. Rodriguez de Simons was a perfect example. Having studied business in college and gone to work in a real estate company, she was in a great position out of college. While she told us that she did enjoy the job, she knew it wasn’t something that inspired her. As a result, after only a year working in the real estate business, she left to pursue advocacy and has been there ever since. Given all of that, however, she recognized that there were people out there that had different passions and she emphasized that no matter what that passion or dream may be, that you will be happiest if you pursue that. A great reminder that she also gave us as well was that no matter what you ultimately pursue, there is almost always a way to put that skill or field to use in serving the community if you desire and I felt like that was a very reassuring and positive note to end on.